Editorial By Bruce Karnick [email protected] People are always trying to come up with fun ways to hang with their neighbors. Giant Jenga, cornhole boards, or bonfires are cool, but have you ever …
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Editorial By Bruce Karnick
People are always trying to come up with fun ways to hang with their neighbors. Giant Jenga, cornhole boards, or bonfires are cool, but have you ever thought about a hot dish cookoff? Seriously, is there anything more Minnesotan than a bunch of neighbors coming together and having a contest to see who had the best hotdish?
That is exactly what Becky Wormington decided to do. She whipped up some criteria then put together some judging sheets, suckered some judges, I mean recruited some judges and put together a small gathering of about 30 neighbors. They spent time outside enjoying each other’s company, chatting and talking about hot dish.
The judges, Bob Miller, Del Winge, Kathy Rother and Lloyd Steger were gathered around the kitchen table, sequestered from the rest of the group, so they could taste test and discuss amongst themselves.
Rother had her favorite already picked out. “I just liked the taste of it. And it was I just liked it. I liked the ingredients in there.”
Wormington then ran down the process that was created. “So, here’s the criteria, but they had to go by Bruce. They had go by texture, ingredients smell, taste and appearance and they judge it from one to five. Then we’re going to add up the score and see who got the most. And then we’ve got A People’s Choice out there. Oh, there you go. And then a creative name. You should have seen some of the names. We have chicky chicky, bang, bang.”
Outside, folks were gathering, anxiously awaiting the opportunity to dig in. Wormington stepped out, rang the dinner bell and gave the go ahead. Announcing that the judging was completed.
She contacted the Journal with this story idea because she wants to encourage others to step out of their comfort zones and engage with their neighbors. She hopes that someone will see this and come up with their own way to celebrate with their neighbors.
The judges (left to right around the table): Bob Miller, Del Winge, Kathy Rother and Lloyd Steger had some hard decisions to make after tasting 10 different hot dishes.
Photo by Bruce Karnick
